Publisher Matthew Shear dead at age 57

NEW YORK (AP) -- A gregarious and widely loved publisher who worked with authors ranging from Doris Kearns Goodwin and Shirley MacLaine to Janet Evanovich and Augusten Burroughs has died. Matthew Shear has 57.

Shear died Wednesday at his home in Manhattan after a 3-year battle with lung cancer, according to St. Martin's Press, an imprint of Macmillan. Shear joined St. Martin's Press in 1995 and headed it since 2010. In a companywide email, Macmillan CEO John Sargent cited Shear's "outgoing personality," outsized laugh and his passion for making books succeed.

A native of New York City who attended Hofstra University, Shear broke into publishing in 1977 as publicity manager for the New American Library. He spent a decade at Bantam Books and also worked at Ballantine Books and at Berkley Books.